Pedrosa Tops Rain-Soaked Germany FP2

2012 Sachsenring MotoGP Friday Practice Results

During first of two free practice sessions for Sachsenring MotoGP held Friday, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa took the top time.

Pedrosa posted a quickest lap time of 1:22.357 during a dry first practice session, edging out his teammate Casey Stoner by 0.087 of a second. But there was no improvement in the second free practice Friday, considering the Sachsenring circuit was soaked.

Although held under wet conditions, Pedrosa’s time of 1:32.338 was the quickest during FP2. Pedrosa finished the wet FP2 session 0.076 of a second ahead of LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl, and 0.099 of a second ahead of Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo.

To put these Friday times into perspective, Pedrosa holds the lap record at Sachsenring, a track he won at five times, posting a 1’21.846 last season.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V MotoGP) says: “The weekend has started pretty good for us; I felt comfortable in both the dry and wet conditions, but we only managed half of our plan today. We wanted to test the hard rear tires in the afternoon, because in theory the hardest compound should be working better in this track where you are leaning to the left a long time, and with the soft the bike slides a lot.

“Anyway, it’s been also good to try the bike in the wet for one practice session because it looks like the weather will again be very unstable.

“Today I’ve been using the new chassis we received in Assen and the feeling was ok, but weather permitting, I would like to compare both chassis again tomorrow before qualifying. We’ve had a good start, but we cannot relax; the times are very close here, as usual, and we still have margin to improve.”

The conditions were extremely wet Friday afternoon in Germany, MotoGP reporting “a torrential downpour just before the session was about to start saw riders head out gingerly 10 minutes into the practice on full wet tires to test the German circuit. A few minutes later the majority of riders had headed out onto the track to dial in their wet weather race set-up. Yet it was a frantic final few minutes as some spots of sun had created numerous dry patches, and riders were swapping places at the front frequently.”

Stoner finished fourth under the wet conditions, 0.180 of a second behind. The next closest rider was Ducati Team’s Valentino Rossi, the nine-time World Champion finishing 0.304 of a second behind Pedrosa. Rossi, who had his best-ever finish of second during a wet Le Mans MotoGP, was followed by teammate Nicky Hayden in sixth.

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 duo of Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso, who did considerably well in the dry morning session, arrived in the seventh and eighth quickest positions, respectively.

Lorenzo’s teammate ended a subdued day down in ninth, just ahead of Pramac Racing Team’s Hector Barbera, the morning’s fastest Ducati.

Top CRT went to British rider James Ellison aboard the Paul Bird Motorsport ART machine. Fortunately no riders crashed in the session.

For a report on the first free practice, which has the top times for Friday sessions, click here. The riders will return to the Sachsenring circuit Saturday morning for the third and final free practice session ahead of qualifying for Sunday’s MotoGP.

2012 Sachsenring MotoGP Free Practice 2 Results: